Branding

Social media mistakes that can hurt your business

With the explosion of social media into everyday life across every demographic, the role it plays in today’s marketing keeps growing more and more significant. It’s a wise decision to join in on the conversation and use this growing media to further establish your brand and making a connection with your audience. However, if social media strategies are not used correctly it can cause more long term harm than good for your brand’s image.

The key to an effective social media strategy is recognizing whether or not you’re engaging your audience or just speaking into the wind. Here are a few crucial points that you should analyze in order to have a successful social media blitz.

Do You Have a Defined Social Media Campaign Goal?

If you’re using social media to build your brand, it’s important to know exactly what you want your customers to do. Is it to share your post? Is it to sign up for your newsletter, or is it to try your product? (Note: not every campaign should focus on selling a product. You can use it to build loyalty and credibility first.)

By not having a specific goal in mind, you cannot lay out a good strategic approach, which can then lead to waste of time, money, and can even get a reputation of being inconsistent.

Not Knowing Your Audience

Having and using a social media presence is easy. Knowing what to post, share, or say is not. Consistently updating your profiles isn’t enough anymore. Strategic social media marketing requires a thorough understanding of your audience. Do you know what they would like to hear or read? What kind of problems they are battling? It’s important that you get your message across, but it’s more vital to have a message that appeals to your intended audience to maximize effectiveness. This requires deep understanding of marketing principles, human behavior, and an effective marketing approach.

Providing irrelevant information, or being insensitive to your customer’s needs can hurt your reputation outside social media. What you post or say represent your company and any social media mistake can put you on the bad side of the scene.

Ignoring Negative Feedback

Some brands fail to understand that social media is an extension of your customer service. It’s inevitable to receive negative feedback, but how you respond will let people know more about your business.

Simply ignoring or deleting comments that aren’t helping you, they’re hurting you. When facing a problem in your business infrastructure do you avoid it or do you resolve it as soon as you are able? Responding to criticism, is an opportunity to let consumers learn more about your company and your product. More importantly, you as a business owner will know what consumers need to become returning customers.

It pays to have a social media manager that can always manage your social media accounts, respond promptly to any feedback, and thoughtfully craft a message that conveys your company message. This skill however requires understanding of human psychology and skill with words.

Being a DIY’er

Yes, you know more about your product, you might even know more about your potential clients, but without a deep understanding of marketing principles or strategies, social media won’t take you too far.

Investing in an experienced, skilled, and highly-competent social media managers can save you from the pain of having to deal with all of the problems social media marketing entails, while being able to avoid hurting your own brand due to an inconsistent approach.

Social Media is a tool for everyone—consumers, marketers, and business owners. With the right approach, social media mistakes can be avoided and it can even lead to a successful branding and significant increase in sales. Contact us today to get the RIGHT Social Media help!

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